I was shocked to find myself getting excited at the product being advertised by one of those evil “Aimed at kids” marketing campaigns which ties the unholy trinity of toy/animation/game together.

I’ve enjoyed games with custom controllers in the past – I’m one of the few people who bought DJ Hero, and many of us will have played Rhythm games like Guitar Hero which require fancy replica instruments. But this goes somewhere else. The real-world object is not just a new way of pressing controller buttons.

In justification I could only suggest that it was the core interaction concept which got me buzzing and not the pure evil of the marketing. The game objects leaking into real life and having a part in the mechanics was the core which interested me – the fact that with a bit of RFID and a toy object, you could have a character with which you can interact in and out of the game.

As a friend, maq identified, if this concept were tied in with more ‘traditional’ tabletop gaming, I reckon we approach some sort of Augmented Reality bright-point of light, where collectible objects can mould and alter game worlds, and actions in the game world can have an effect upon the usefulness of real-world objects.

I guess though, it all boils down to the fact that I’d clearly just quite like to be 10 again…